As the number of merchants with which customers can do business continues to expand, particularly those merchants offering products and services online, customers often do not know which ones they can trust. Customers frequently rely on the opinions of friends, colleagues, and other acquaintances to decide what products they should buy or what merchants they should buy from, but such information may not always be available. For example, a customer considering buying a specific product may not know anyone else who purchased that product. Further, it may be more valuable for the customer to have feedback from a broader group of individuals. If a particular merchant is well known among a large group of people to offer inadequate products or poor service, for example, a customer may think twice before buying from that merchant. Similarly, the good reputation of a merchant among a large group of people may be more valuable to a customer than the opinion of just one or two individuals. Customers may lack a quick and easy way to provide and access such feedback, however.
These and other drawbacks exist with current systems.